David Hornik at August Capital:
"I believe that a new era is upon us in the 2000's. I believe that we have progressed from the "Computerless Computer Company" to the "Softwareless Software Company." Taking the evolution of computer company one step further, "computer" companies are no longer about selling software, but rather about delivering services. Hosted services have the distinct advantage of meeting all three of the "new" rules suggested in the Computerless Computer Company: 1) they compete purely as a utility; 2) they monopolize the true sources of added value; and 3) they are designed to deliver the greatest possible sophistication with the simplest possible user experience.....
In the era of the Softwareless Software Company, in which value is measured by utility, simplicity and reliability, the greatest asset may ultimately be the near infinitely scaling data center. It will certainly be important that the new computer company deliver great utility through its software-delivered service. But the most significant differentiator may ultimately prove to be the capacity to scale with massive demand. And those companies best situated to deliver that scale will be the winners. Thus, it is no surprise that just up and down the river from Microsoft's new datacenter in Quincy Washington, both Yahoo and Google are contemplating building their own gargantuan datacenters. The Softwareless Software Company may have come full circle from the Computerless Computer Company and be more about hardware and infrastructure than about software after all."
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